News in Brief

Date: 06 August 2023 - 21:37

News ID: ۱۱۷۹۳۷

MANILA (Reuters) -- The Philippines on Sunday accused China’s coast guard of blocking and water-cannoning a Philippine military supply boat in the South China Sea. China’s coast guard countered that it had implemented necessary controls in accordance with the law to deter Philippine ships, which it accused of trespassing and carrying illegal building materials. China claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, an assertion rejected internationally, while Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei, Taiwan and the Philippines have various claims to certain areas. A Chinese coast guard vessel on Saturday blocked and water-cannoned the chartered Philippine boat on a routine troop rotation and resupply mission, “in wanton disregard of the safety of the people on board and in violation of international law”, the Armed Forces of the Philippines said. It said in a statement the incident occurred near the Second Thomas Shoal, which Manila calls Ayungin Shoal, a submerged reef where a handful of its troops live on a rusty World War Two-era U.S. ship that was intentionally grounded in 1999. China Coast Guard spokesman Gan Yu responded that China has “indisputable” sovereignty over the Spratly Islands and their adjacent waters, including the Second Thomas Shoal.

***

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Elon Musk said in a social media post that his fight with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg would be live-streamed on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. The social media moguls have been egging each other into a mixed martial arts cage match in Las Vegas since June. “Zuck v Musk fight will be live-streamed on X. All proceeds will go to charity for veterans,” Musk said in post on X early on Sunday morning, without giving any further details. Meta did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Musk’s post.

***

SEOUL (Reuters) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un gave field guidance at major weapons factories between Thursday and Saturday including production lines of engines for strategic cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles, KCNA state news agency said on Sunday. Kim also inspected factories producing shells for super large-caliber multiple rocket launchers and transporter-erector-launchers, which are normally used to fire ballistic missiles, KCNA reported. He gave instructions for increasing production capacities at the factories as an important part of bolstering the country’s defense capabilities, KCNA said. Inspecting the munitions factory, Kim noted improved precision processing and modernized automation in the production of large-caliber multiple rocket launcher shells, KCNA said. North Korea has tested rocket launchers for larger caliber shells, advanced cruise missiles and, last month, its newest ballistic missiles including solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

***

PARIS (Guardian) -- More than half the journalists at France’s only standalone Sunday newspaper have resigned after failing to prevent the arrival of an editor with far-right ties in a bitter dispute that has fanned fears of a further U.S.-style polarization of the country’s media. “We didn’t win,” said Antoine Malo, a roving foreign correspondent at the Journal du Dimanche (JDD) and member of its editorial association. “We didn’t stop him, and now there’s a mass exodus. But the bigger fight will go on – from outside.” The mainstream paper’s 100-odd journalists ended a 40-day strike – the longest media strike in France since the 1970s – on Tuesday after Geoffroy Lejeune, previously editor of the far-right weekly Valeurs Actuelles, took up his post as editor-in-chief. The 34-year-old is a leading supporter of the xenophobic polemicist Eric Zemmour, who ran for the French presidency in 2022, promotes the racist “great replacement” theory, and has been investigated 16 times – and convicted on three occasions – for hate speech.

***

ROME (AFP) -- At least 30 migrants are missing following two shipwrecks off the Italian island of Lampedusa, according to survivor testimony, the UN’s migration agency said Sunday. Around 28 people were reported lost at sea by survivors on one boat, while three were reported missing from the second, after both went down in stormy weather on Saturday, said the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Both were rickety iron boats believed to have set off from Sfax in Tunisia on Thursday. Cultural mediators with the IOM believed there were “at least 30 people missing” after speaking to the survivors, press officer Flavio Di Giacomo told AFP. An investigation into the shipwrecks has been opened in Agrigento, on the nearby Italian island of Sicily.

***

PINGYUAN, China (AFP) -- A shallow 5.4-magnitude earthquake struck eastern China in the early hours of Sunday, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said, with state media reporting at least 21 people injured and dozens of buildings collapsed. The quake, which struck at 2:33 am (1833 GMT Saturday), hit 26 kilometers (16 miles) south of the city of Dezhou in Shandong province, at a depth of 10 kilometers, the USGS said. It was the strongest to hit the province in more than a decade, state-run tabloid the Global Times said. The quake was felt as far away as Beijing and Tianjin, as well as in Shanghai, about 800 kilometers (500 miles) from the epicenter. Videos on social media showed shaking light fixtures, trembling ground and people evacuating their buildings, with one clip showing people walking past bricks scattered on the ground. China’s Ministry of Emergency Management has launched a level-four emergency response and sent a team to Shandong province to lead the rescue work, according to state news agency Xinhua.